Yankees baseball with a dash of sarcasm and a lot of heart.

Results tagged ‘ where's the offense? ’

So that’s how the world ends; not with a bang, but a whimper. We are officially eliminated from any and all playoff spots, which means our season is basically over. Derek Jeter’s last home game is tomorrow, his last ever game is on Sunday night. If we’re going to win any of the next four games, please let them be those. One of the people I follow on Twitter tweeted an interesting graphic concerning the last time the Yankees missed the playoffs in consecutive seasons —

For the uninitiated, that’s what gas prices were like the last time that happened, which should give you an idea of how rare an occurrence it is. Gas under a buck…..where oh where did the time go.

Our pitching sucked this afternoon, and there’s no nice way of putting it. Our starter, Shane Greene, lasted only 3.2 innings, giving up 6 ER on 7 H. Our bullpen gave up a further 3 ER on 8 H. It was just an all-around sh!tshow, so I’m not sure if yesterday was an aberration or what. Claiborne and Huff were the only two relievers who didn’t crap the bed, so good for them.

The offense was as stale and pathetic as the pitching. Once again, the top part of the lineup had all the hits/runs, with one exception; Stephen Drew went 1-2 with an RBI, and he bats sixth. Chase Headley went 3-4 with an RBI, Mark Teixeira went 2-4 with 3 RBI, and that’s basically anything of consequence.

The Yankees could only manage three in a row, I’m afraid. Any more and they’d all be liable to blow up or something. We’re only four games above .500, so my challenge for them is to finish better than 82-82. Even if it’s 83-81, I don’t care. Just finish above .500.

Chris Capuano didn’t have the best night, lasting only 5.2 innings, giving up 4 ER on 5 H, walking four while striking out only two. At least he didn’t give up any HRs, yeah? Our bullpen was okay, they didn’t completely sh!t the bed, but they did give up a further 2 ER and 5 H, so it wasn’t a sparkling performance by any means. There were other reasons we eventually ended up losing that had nothing to do with the pitching, as poor as it was.

The offense has been stagnant all season, so that in and of itself wasn’t shocking. I expect us to barely do anything at the plate anymore. What annoyed me is we managed 11 hits, a feat for this team, and yet we scored only three runs. We were 3-13 with RISP and left 11 men on base. That’s not going to win you ballgames, whether you’re a good team, a poor team, or a middling team. When are we ever going to clock that many hits during one game? You need to capitalize on that. Brett Gardner went 2-5, Derek Jeter went 2-5 with an RBI, Brian McCann went 1-4 with an RBI, Ichiro went 2-4, and Francisco Cervelli went 1-4 with an RBI. Let’s win today if we can. That’s IF we can.

One should also bear in mind that we’re 14.5 games behind the Orioles, not that it actually matters anymore now, but still. Woohoo, second place. I should take comfort in the fact we didn’t get swept, but right now, my main goal is finishing the season above .500. I can’t even remember the last time we finished the season below that mark. I’d like to not have my memory refreshed, TYVM.

Brandon McCarthy pitched 7.0 innings, giving up 2 ER on 4 H, giving us another great pitching performance that this time didn’t lead to a loss. Dellin Betances pitched the 8th, and David Robertson pitched the 9th, picking up his 37th save of the season. Between them, they gave up only one hit and struck out four. As has been something I’ve remarked upon quite a bit since returning to this blog early last month, our pitching, for the most part, hasn’t been the problem. It’s been spotty yes, but on the whole, it’s done better than it’s done poorly. The problem has been the offense being woefully inconsistent. Now, about that….

We scored a grand total of four runs this entire series. No runs in the first game, one run in the second game, three runs last night. We nearly managed to hit upon the Fibonacci sequence, there. The fact we only scored three runs is undercut by the fact we only managed four hits, so yet again….yeah. No one stuck out, no one did anything of great consequence. It was a boring, painful, win. I’d rather those than a loss, but I don’t like seeing so many of our players slumping at the same time. Derek Jeter’s batting average right now is .249. .249. He’s retiring in eleven games with an average that is right now, approaching the Mendoza line. How that can not be anything other than depressing?

Well, I should have expected this, really. I mean, at this rate, we may not finish the season over .500. With 12 games to go, it’s entirely doable, and since the playoffs are firmly out of the picture, why not shoot for the stars, eh? Congrats are in order for the Baltimore Orioles, as they won their first AL East championship since 1997, incidentally the one year from 1996-2000 that the Yankees didn’t win the World Series. Hmm. Foreshadowing for next season? I could go with a 1998-style run right about now.

Unlike Monday’s stellar pitching performance that translated into a loss, we got the exact opposite of that last night, and still lost anyway. Michael Pineda turned in an uncharacteristically middling performance, lasting only 5.1 innings, giving up 1 ER on 4 H. It was our bullpen that didn’t help matters at all. Esmil Rogers gave up 3 ER on 2 H during his stint in the game, which lasted all of 1/3 of an inning, then Rich Hill comes in and gives up 1 ER on 2 H, leaving before even recording an out. When the Yankees suck, we make a show out of it, don’t we?

Well, the good news is, we exceeded our offensive output from Monday by well over 100%. The bad news is, we only scored one run, and on Monday we scored no runs at all. So, I mean, it’s something. Whatever. Ichiro went 1-4 with an RBI, Francisco Cervelli went 2-3, and that’s basically it as far as notable performances went. Let’s see if we can get swept tonight!

I don’t really think words exist to describe the horror of last night’s game. I really don’t. I don’t know what was worse about it; the fact we didn’t score a single run, or the fact we gave up the win in the bottom of the 9th inning. It’s like the Yankees hate their fans, and want to make them suffer as much as is humanly possible.

Chris Capuano pitched a great game, it’s a shame that he didn’t get a win to reflect it. 6.0 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K — that should be a winning line. A big thumbs down to Shawn Kelley who coughed up the RBI to Zobrist in the 9th, that was not cool. I mean, we were going to lose anyway, but did it have to be with 2 outs?

A big thumbs down also goes to the offense, who aside from Martin Prado (2-4), didn’t do a damn thing. I know I’ve come to expect mediocrity these past few months, but come on. Show some balls.

Yes, you read that right. We had no business winning the one game that we did, so really, we ought to have been swept. Doesn’t feel good saying it, but the truth hurts sometimes. We were outplayed in Saturday’s game, but managed to squeak by for who knows what lucky reason, but that kind of luck doesn’t tend to stay with us, so here we are.

It’s a shame that when our starters turn in really excellent performances, the offense sh!ts the bed and renders them moot. Kuroda threw 7.0 innings, gave up 1 ER on 6 H, walked none and struck out five. Fast-forward to the bottom of the 9th, and David Robertson, usually a very reliable pitcher, promptly blows the save, then gets the loss, by giving up 2 ER on 3 H. Thanks for nothing, D-Rob.

That said, it’s not entirely the pitching’s fault that we lost. The offense did nothing, as they’re wont to do anymore. Martin Prado and Brian McCann accounted for our runs, each going 2-4 with an RBI. As we only had six hits to speak of, that’s 2/3 of the offense right there. Two people. You can’t win games with that, no matter how well your pitching might be. Depressing. Just absolutely utterly depressing.

Hey, we won. I’d get excited, but it wasn’t much of a victory. Not that I begrudge the Orioles anything, they’re clearly a great team. They’ve more than earned the success they’ve achieved this season. I may hate other teams, but I can admit when they’re better than us, and a whole lot of folk are better than us this year. At least winning this afternoon meant we can’t get swept, which I’m accepting as the victory we can take away from this series.

Shane Greene was our starter today, lasting 5.1 innings, giving up 2 ER on 7 H, while walking one and striking out nine. I would have liked to have seen him last the entire 6th inning, if only for it to register as a “quality start,” but he got the win, so it all came out the same in the end. David Robertson picked up his 36th save on the season as well.

Chris Young stole home today, proving that not all things that come from the Mets are bad. He’s been downright fantastic for us in the short time we’ve had him thus far. Richardson and McCann clocked our other two runs. We only had four hits as it was, so it’s not like we did a whole lot today. Going 1-5 with RISP and leaving six men on base certainly didn’t help, Baltimore’s outstanding pitching aside. Let’s hope we can at least force a tie tomorrow evening with a win.

I don’t have much of a write-up for these two games, because there’s not much that really can be said about them. In the first game, we got a stellar pitching performance, hardly any offense, and lost in 11 innings. In the second, we had middling pitching and absolutely zero offense, and lost in regulation. The absolute last team we needed to lose to, if not for morale’s sake than for any other reason, we lose to. I can’t explain it.

I should have been upset by last night’s loss, but I wasn’t. I wasn’t upset because in some small part, I expected it, and in another, I’ve become so desensitized to our losses that when they happen, even when I thought we’d win, I find it hard to get upset or angered or even annoyed. We’re 11 GB in the AL East now, god knows how many games back in the Wild Card race, so for all intents and purposes (not “intensive purposes,” as some might erroneously believe), our season is done. We are, as the title suggests, merely playing out the string. It’s sad that as a Yankees fan, that’s what we’re doing, but it hasn’t been our year since 2009, when we acquired CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira, and AJ Burnett. That was almost a surreal season — I don’t think anyone was anticipating we’d land all three, much less end up winning the World Series. Ah well, as Topol sang in Fiddler on the Roof, sunrise…..sunset.

Hiroki Kuroda did not have a good game, which is a rarity. I dare say he actually had a horribly sh!tty one. Lasting only 3.1 innings, he gave up 4 ER on 9 H. As a result of our starter’s early exit, Girardi went through nearly everyone we had in the pen, including our closer, David Robertson. The sad part is, the seven pitchers that came in for relief gave up only a further two hits, no more runs, and struck out a combined six. I say it’s sad because they they kept us in the game. Any team that chase out the starter in the 4th inning, you’d think would tattoo the bullpen for a bunch of runs/hits as well, but the Rays stopped at four.

The other thing that makes that sad, is that the Yankees stopped at three. When your pitcher craps the bed, but your bullpen holds the other team right where they are, you’re supposed to take advantage of that and make them pay for being unable to chase out your relievers, too. We didn’t do that. Jacoby Ellsbury went 2-4 with an RBI, Chris Young went 1-3 with 2 RBI, and Ichiro went 2-3. That’s the extent of our offensive firepower, and the one good thing I can say about the Yankees last night was that we went 3-5 with RISP and left only two men on base. I was anticipating a far more aggravating number. Let’s just win tonight and as I keep saying, try to end the season on a high note.

Remember yesterday how I said we’d probably lose today because we tend to do that a lot, constantly moving in an up and down motion? Well, we done gone and lost. Not just lost, but we got shut out to boot! Because as we’ve learned from the Yankees this season, if there’s anything worth doing, it’s worth overdoing. It’s a shame too, because even though Shane Greene only lasted 5.2 innings, those 5.2 innings weren’t completely dismal. Our bullpen was spot on, as well. The problem, much like the first game of this series, was the offense. Or in this case, the lack of it. It certainly was quite nice for the Yankees to help honor Derek Jeter by doing absolutely nothing at the plate, even as he was one of only people to get a hit. With 21 games left, I have a feeling they’re just playing out the string, but for Jeter’s sake alone, I’d like to at least finish on a good note.

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